He said neighboring Miami County had an average increase of 25%, while Clark County had an average increase of 27.5% and Logan County’s was 31%.
“Those are numbers that we typically have not seen before, and I think we can anticipate that that is going to be what we’re going to see this year, and this would be the state’s recommendations as we move forward,” Keith said. “Given our county and our history, I think it’s not a stretch to think that that’s what we’re looking at here.”
Mike Brill, spokesman for the auditor’s office, said property values and taxes are not directly correlated.
“A robust increase in property values would result in just a mild increase in taxes, overall,” Brill said. “Some property owners would see their taxes go up, others will see them stay about the same, and quite a few would even see them go down.”
Ohio’s property tax system prevents large increases in values from resulting in large increases in taxes, he said.
“If a jurisdiction wants to raise a significant amount of revenue, they have to take a new levy to the voters,” Brill said.
County auditor’s offices are required to fully update property values every six years, he said. Midway through that 6-year cycle, a triennial update, also known as a market update, is performed.
There are 13 counties in Ohio carrying out a triennial update next year and Montgomery County is one of them,, Keith said.
“We hope to have our values so we can submit them to the state around April,” Keith said. “And then after we get approval (from the Ohio Department of Taxation), we’ll be sending notices out to property owners with tentative values, and then they’ll have an opportunity to meet with us on an informal basis to appeal those, and so we’ll probably be doing that in the summer (of 2023).”
Eventually, new values take effect for the 2024 tax bills, Brill said.
The county doesn’t send appraisers into the field for the triennial update, unless there is “some extraordinary circumstance,” he said.
“We don’t typically update our property descriptions, our property records,” Keith said. “We don’t take new photographs of properties. It’s primarily a market update. We take a look at the real estate market, what (valid) sales are happening, and then we make adjustments uniformly by neighborhood.
“Quite frankly, if everyone in a neighborhood goes up a certain percentage they seem to understand that a little bit better than being all over the place,” he said.
In 2020, Montgomery County’s revaluation was a 15% increase, which is “probably the highest we’ve ever seen,” Keith said.
Montgomery County is up to 10,101 valid real estate sales for 2022, which is “a big number” and second only to the more than 12,762 sales recorded in 2021, Keith said.
“We won’t reach the record number ... but that’s a good solid number,” Keith said. “That indicates how robust the market is and how active the market’s been in terms of value.”
He said new construction in 2022 in Montgomery County totaled $241.2 million, with $132.3 million of that from residential construction and $108.9 million from commercial construction.
Keith said among the notable new construction in the county is Dayton Phoenix Group, which rebuilt on Stanley Avenue following “significant damage” from the 2019 tornadoes without losing customers or employees. The county reduced the value of the property from more than $6 million to $692,740.
“It gives you an idea of what was what was left there,” Keith said. “They’ve gone in and rebuilt the property and so now ... the value is in excess of $12 million. That’s a real plus to the community. They’ve stayed working there in the community, they’ve kept the business there, and that $12 million in value, none of that is tax exempt. That’s all taxable value, so that’s a big boost to the community.”
Valid residential property sales in Montgomery County
2005: 7,710
2008: 3,875
2011: 2,943
2014: 4,900
2017: 7,125
2020: 9,099
2021: 12,762
2022: 10,101 (year to date)
SOURCE: Montgomery County Auditor’s Office
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